Sunday, January 31, 2010

Thank you all for the incredible party. I can’t imagine anyone has ever had such a blast turning forty. There were balloons. And shrimp. And a chocolate fountain. And friendship and love. All under the watchful eye of Rockwell, Fuchs, and Pyle. My only regret was not being able to talk to everyone more.

A special thanks to Tim O’Brien for putting the kibosh on my plan to spend the evening watching reruns of Glee. And to the Society for pulling out all the stops. And did I mention a chocolate fountain?

The Hamilton King is arguably one of the most prestigious awards in the illustration community. It is given to the best painting in the Illustrators annual, as judged by past Hamilton King award–winners. While given to a specific work, it has, unofficially, come to signify a mid-career achievement award. Previous winners include Bernie Fuchs, Leo and Diane Dillon, James McMullan, Mark English, Brad Holland, Greg Manchess, Bob Peak, Donato Giancola....A “who’s who” of illustration since 1965.

The award ceremony and black-tie dinner will take place at the Society of Illustrators in June in conjunction with the Illustrators Fall of Fame inductions.

Not only is John an amazing artist, he is a caring individual deeply dedicated to his craft. I am thrilled for him and proud of Tor’s small part in this honor.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

I am super excited to be continuing Jason Henninger’s I Speak Fluent Giraffe, beyond his previous Cthulhu inspirations. He will be writing a series of crazy-but-in-the-good-way poems, stories, autobiographical oddities, and various undefinables.

Much thanks to Greg Manchess for the logo above, with an assist from Jamie Stafford-Hill. (Hmm, maybe another process post is in order?)

Brain Elig will continue to illustrate each story. Jason and Brian have never met but they make a great pair. If anyone could, Brian seems to “get” Jason.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

A bunch of artist friends and I took advantage of the long weekend and headed up to Montreal to see the J. W. Waterhouse exhibit — the largest-ever collection of Waterhouse work, it is on display until February 7th. Montreal will be its only North American venue.

Typically seeing a full body of one artist’s work, being able to view a life-time’s worth of progression, picking up on reoccurring symbols and learning their visual language, makes me appreciate the individual pieces more. I have to admit, in this case I felt I may have gotten more out of the paintings if I had stumbled upon them slowly over time. They are all beautiful, to be sure, but the effect of so many depictions of wistful women as an ideal of “feminine whatever” eventually got me a little eye-rolly. That said, my four or five favorite paintings of the show are amazing and well worth the trip all on their own.

The scale of the paintings was surprising – major works reaching 6 to 9 feet -- and it added to the otherworldliness of the mythological themes he often depicted. The application of paint is loose and wonderful to look at up close. (We were thankful to guards that never seemed to mind us standing nose-close to the works.) It was as easy to get lost in the folds of a woman’s dress as it was the beauty of their faces.

Among my favorites...

TOP:“The Lady of Shallot”, his most famous work, is heartbreaking. We see her embarking in what is soon to be her funeral barge. A sense of longing, freedom, and doom woven into her breath. The tapestries dragging in the water, at last a direct connection to the earth. Her face is in sharp focus while everything else softens around her…a moment of clarity within a dream.

BOTTOM LEFT:“The Magic Circle”, perhaps my favorite of the exhibit, shows a woman of real strength and depth. I love the slightly out-turned knee required to cut through the earth. Each crows looks like they have a part to play in the incantation. And, let’s face it, the live snake oroborus around her neck is just badass.

BOTTOM RIGHT:“Mariamne” Another woman of strength and confidence. She stands strong as a marble column amongst so much judgment, the only figure able to look at the other players in the eye. The glow of her dress is striking but even more evocative is the shadow across her face – she is much more beautiful and mysterious because we can’t quite see her.

I didn’t know Waterhouse’s work nearly as well as others on the trip but once there I realized how many of his paintings are icons. After a while, women standing on their toes with titled heads doesn’t quite do it for me, but individually they are great and it was a treat to see them. Also on display was a room full of his sketch books and color studies.

Unfortunately the museum gets no marks for exhibition design. Matte black walls and glossy black signage gave the place a “welcome to my sexy-den” vibe, and being in darkness meant that the paintings had to be spotlit, causing a lot of reflections.

The rest of the museum is smallish but with some real gems. We ran across this Pascal Dangan-Bouverete painting and fell in love with it. These women are beautifull – stark, formal, honest and direct – without the need of a “feminine ideal.” We also became enamored with this crazy sculpture of a woman embraced by Death. It might be the kind of thing you’d expect tattooed to a biker’s arm, but it had us all entranced.

Day two: Back to the museum for a little refresher and then off to the Biodome. Lynx! Two lynxes. We heart the lynxes.And the great part about winter travel?: depth of field. The train ride was a blast. I know it would be just as spectacular in the summer and heartbreaking in the fall, but being able to see through the trees and deep into snow covered fields and frozen lakes was mesmerizing. The downside: All the reading and work I thought I would do sat in my bag, mocking me, while I stared out the window for twelve hours straight.It was amazing to be up there with so many friends, all passionate about art. The combined experience between them must have be in the hundreds of years. Between the conversation, artwork, lynxes, and landscapes, we are all excited to get back to work. Greg, Scott, Scott, Boris, Julie, Kurt, Zelda, Dan, Chris, Kristina, Tony, Nonie, Rebbecca, Rebbecca, Mat, Marc, Chloe, Alex, Elizabeth…it was awesome! What’s next?

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Friday, January 08, 2010

A huge congrats to Idiots’ Books for finishing up 81 illustrations for the 81 segments of Cory Doctor’s Makers.

I have to admit, when Pablo Defendini first brought up the idea of serializing the book in so many chapters, I never thought we’d be able to get something visually interesting for that long a haul. Liz Gorinsky suggested Idiots’ Books and, 6 months later, they have created a beautiful, engaging, funny, wall-of-imagery that looks just as good together as it does in its parts. The fact the you can spin and rearrange each segment is mindboggling icing on the cake, but really, I love seeing the passages as they created it. Awesome, guys!

When we started this project I knew we wouldn’t have an artist more primed to be involved than Sam. He’s a huge fan of the series and it shows.

If you are fan of Sam’s and/or The Wheel of Time, head over to Tor.com to see him interviewed on video, read his essay about his cover and the motivations of the character he chose to depict, and see process images of the painting.

Friday, January 01, 2010

“My goal all along for TYE was to honor the book and express my love for it in pictures because I just couldn’t do it with words, no matter how hard I tried. I’ve been humbled by the response of so many incredibly hard working, gifted artists.” — CORY GOODBEY

It’s a phenomenal site. As a fan I love it because just about every image is a heart-breaker, or at least a grin-starter. As an art director, it is a priceless collection of artists’ links. The contributions may have come to close but there are countless hours of exploration within it. Thank you Cory and everyone that participated.